Royal Philanthropic Vaccine Expedition (Balmis)
Real Expedición Filantrópica de la Vacuna (Balmis)
- Date
- 1803-1806 · confidence high
- Place
- A Coruña, Galicia, Spain
- Credited to
- Francisco Javier de Balmis, José Salvany and Isabel Zendal
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
A health mission that sailed from A Coruña in 1803 and took smallpox vaccine to America and the Philippines, keeping the lymph alive through chains of successively inoculated children. It left vaccination boards in the territories visited.
The 22 orphan boys from the A Coruña foundling home were cared for by Isabel Zendal, the first known nurse on an international mission. The exact number of people vaccinated and the role of Salvany, who died in Bolivia in 1810, are debated.
What it led to
- vaccination in America and the Philippines from 1804
- permanent vaccination boards in the colonies
- a model for an international public-health campaign